Acquisitions

After 15+ years building a multi-trade regional home services business, Donny and Maegan reached a founder's crossroads: compete alone as pressure intensified from PE-backed consolidators flooding their markets or choose a partner from a position of relative strength. They saw it was time to choose a partner who could help scale their business beyond where they could take it on their own.

The Dunns ran a deliberate sales process, evaluating multiple suitors and surfacing a series of red flags along the way. Donny & Maegan ultimately chose Southern Home Services to continue their legacy and build the Dunn’s of the future. Southern won on the strength of its people, the fairness it showed before, during, and after the offer letter, the strong cultural alignment, and a process that felt collaborative rather than transactional. It was a transaction and a relationship built on trust.

After getting private equity outreach every day for five years, Richard finally said yes to a cold outreach call. As someone who spent the early part of their career in the world of finance, Richard was not your typical home services business owner. Richard’s operating philosophy is one of determined effort and grit. He approached every day and every new challenge with a “can do” attitude, move fast and break things philosophy and a relentless drive for growth. When the call came in, he found himself facing two years of stagnating revenue and he felt that he had scaled the business to its potential under his ownership.

Over the course of the next year, Richard and Southern built a relationship and Richard got to see firsthand that Southern operated with a steadfastness and level of integrity it was hard to find these days. That relationship culminated in a successful transaction in 2025. Richard is still assisting with the operation after the sale and is motivated to make the business and brand the best of Southern’s portfolio.

In early 2021, Steve Johnson picked up a phone call more out of habit than for any other reason. He often received PE outreach and politely listened before hanging up, or he ignored it outright. When Southern called something felt different, the terms were tailored to his specific situation, and he didn’t feel like he was being oversold a bill of goods.

Steve ended up speaking with seven potential private equity backed consolidators but ultimately chose Southern because the conversation was honest, flexibility was paramount, and he believed in the process that was described to him upfront.

The deal experience itself was pleasantly uneventful. Driven by horror stories from other similar private equity deals, Steve's biggest fear was that something would change at the end: a hurdle would be added, a number would drop, a payout would slip. None of this happened with Southern. Communication was clean, the process was thorough, and the payouts hit exactly when promised. Steve announced the closing to the team, Southern took over that morning, and Steve was happily retired by the end of the day.

Joseph (“Joe”) Strazza didn’t want a career in heating & air conditioning. At only fifteen, Joe got a summer job in air conditioning and never really felt the love or desire to pursue a career in the industry. He had always dreamed of being a law enforcement officer. From the beginning, Joe built his company to be sold one day but approached conversations with private equity as a skeptic, noting, “they didn’t know my business model. They were just throwing numbers out.”

After a former colleague reached out from Southern, Joe agreed to take a call. He had the same fear going into the meeting that his clients and employees would not be cared for the way he had cared for them. He trusted the vision Southern presented to him enough to sign a definitive offer to sell the business. After that, nothing came as a surprise and every step was previewed. The closest thing to friction was a back-and-forth on owner distribution add-backs to net profit, which is normal due-diligence territory.

Today, Joe misses the income side of the business but is content with the decision. He actively flags potential sellers from his network and offers to be a reference on Southern’s behalf.

Scott Goulet had watched buyer groups circle his market for years and quietly began preparing for a sale. He built his own portfolio of buyers, ran a deliberate and parallel process to find the right group, and ultimately hired a reputable business broker to advise him on a sale. After an exhaustive search he selected Southern as the best fit for the M.E. Flow brand, employees and long-term customers.

As a second-generation owner, Scott understood that a decision to sell the business impacted all his employees as well as his family’s legacy. He sought to find a reputable company that would allow the brand to flourish while protecting its employee and customer relationships.

In hindsight, Scott looks back and is confident he made the right decision. He spends his free time investing in real estate, traveling more, spending time with grandchildren and staying busy with advisory work.

Jerry Hall watched private equity move into metro Atlanta starting around 2016. He knew most of the bigger players looking to buy businesses by the time he was ready to sell. Jerry had a plan to do something different in life and two years before he sold he started to prepare himself for an eventual exit. He went into the sale process with no fears, no expectations, and no idea what to expect from what he was about to experience. After talking with several groups, Jerry ended up selecting Southern for three main reasons: 1) his trust in the deal team, 2) his trust in the CEO, and 3) his research on their private equity sponsor.

The deal ran very efficiently. Jerry claims the communication was fantastic from start to finish. Challenges that arose were quickly addressed and discussed. The experience was very professional and he credits the process with teaching him things he didn’t know about how a company at his level should operate.

Jerry has since started pursuing experiences in life that he had previously delayed. He has walked the 480-mile Camino in Spain, traveled throughout Europe, bought and sold commercial real estate, travels half the year and has seen almost all of America.